Touch the ground
by Charcoal love
Summary: It would take some time to set up the ultrasound and the tests to really confirm it but it seemed like she was pregnant. And she didn't quite know who the father might be. It had been two months since her last checkup which left three options. There was John from New York, Harry in Baltimore. And then there was that guy in the town of Mystic Falls, whose name she didn't quite know.
1. Chapter 1

xxooxx

Klaus walked into the graveyard, annoyed. Witches were so irritating, so arrogant. All noses up in the air with superiority even while making deals with vampires and werewolves alike.

"Bring her out." She commanded and out of the back came a group of witches with a bound woman that Klaus recognised.

 _Klaus had been awake for a while. The woman next to him was asleep though and had been since he'd worn her out. His one night stands tended to get clingy, an unfortunate side effect of his Vampiric charisma. He was convinced it was the Supernatural in him that drew the twisted, the broken souls to him._

 _So in comparison this one seemed sociopathic. This one had shoved his arm aside and flopped down on the bed as far from him as she could muttering 'Too warm'. This one had told him 'Good job' after the second orgasm._

 _This one was waking up. So Klaus pretended to sleep._

 _She reached for her phone first and set it to charge. Next she carefully picked up each piece of clothing that was scattered, folding them all up in piles and pulled a brand new dress out of her bag along with a tiny set of toiletries and she went into the bathroom, the sound of the shower running telling Klaus what she was doing. He took the opportunity to change into his clothes himself, walking to the neatly piled set of pants and shirt._

 _His shirt had lipstick stains in the deep red she was wearing when she'd unbuttoned his shirt with her teeth. He remembered her commenting on how disappointing that was, it was meant to be transfer proof._

 _The sound of the shower stopped and within minutes the woman came out. This wasn't the same one he had gone to bed with, the short jean skirt and tank top replaced by a professional looking black knee length sheath, the loose and wild curls replaced by a sleek low chignon, the glossy red lip with a neutral rose and the comfortable sneakers with pointy toed burgundy kittens._

 _"This was fun." She said and set about packing all her things quickly and Klaus spotted an id badge in the purse. Right, humans worked for a living. Then again, even the humans he knew didn't really work, they just came from money._

 _"Yes, it was," Klaus said smoothly, mostly to see the effect._

 _There was none._

 _"Well, thank you for the orgasms," She said and with a waggle of her fingers she was gone._

 _If only all his one night stands were this pleasant._

" _That's_ your leverage? Some random woman I fucked?"

"Not the woman, the child in her belly." Sophie smirked and the woman snorted.

"Dumb fucking hicks, a foetus grows in the womb not the fucking belly."

Klaus knew he liked the woman for a reason.

"It's your child Klaus." Sophie continued with the briefest glance at the woman and the smile dropped from his face fast.

"No, it's impossible."

"Not to mention he's most definitely not the only guy I've fucked in the last few months, there are plenty of other potential sperm donors." The woman cut in.

"SHUT UP!" Sophie said, finally losing her cool before visibly calming herself down and going off on a spiel of how her sister died conducting some spell and that she controlled the woman's life and that of the baby. "If you don't help us take Marcel down so help me, Morgana won't live long enough to see her first maternity dress."

And 'Morgana' spoke up again.

"My, my, a person with nothing to lose is always so dangerous. And you have _nothing_ do you, Sophie? You barely have the loyalty of your coven, Jane-Anne dead and no body to show for it, your precious niece, lost to your own rituals, having to depend upon fucking _Vampires_ to secure your power. Because that's all you want. Power. There's nothing else you could get from this not without becoming the very thing witches hate. An abomination." There was an odd hypnotic effect to the words spoken in such a silken tone. A loving caress of claws, every touch calculated to be easy and soft and painful.

And she wasn't even done yet.

"But then you were always an abomination, weren't you, Sophie? Even before all of this, when your coven believed but you _didn't_. And then when you finally believed, you too believed much, you felt too much, too much hate, too much love, too much grief. So you shut it all off, shut off your emotions like a worthless vampir-"

"SHUT UP!"

Klaus and Elijah could only watch as the woman made mincemeat of Sophie with her words, the other witches shifting uneasily, clearly swayed by the chit.

But Sophie had more than one trick up her sleeve and with hysterical eyes she slammed a hand against a gravestone and the gasp came from the woman instead.

Sophie laughed maniacally, "Now you get it. You and I are linked _Morgana_ , anything that happens to me, happens to _you._ "

The woman lifted her unaffected hand and waggled her fingers while Sophie looked on in disbelief. "Apparently you're wrong."

"But the spell it-"

"Enough!" One of the other witches said. "Obviously you were wrong. This woman isn't carrying the hybrid's child and you've dragged an innocent into your madness!"

"No, I-"

The witches freed the woman and Sophie grew rabid in her anger. When the witch rushed at Morgana the woman reacted instantly, dislocating her arm before jabbing her in the neck and bringing her down. The witches congregated around their fallen member and dragging her unconscious body away leaving just the three of them in the graveyard, a hybrid, a vampire and a pregnant woman. Perhaps in a few years when Klaus had finally built his army of hybrids so there was no hiding to do, there would be a joke like that.

"I don't suppose either of you could give me a lift to the Sheraton?"

* * *

They were nearly at the hotel when the ringing of a mobile phone filled the limited space of the car.

 _"Morgana? Where are you? I tried your room but you weren't there."_

"I'm afraid I got waylaid during the tour of the Quarters. I should be back in a couple of minutes. Did you want something?"

 _"Dr Shastri was at the seminar in the evening, I know you wanted to talk to him."_

"That's fine it would be better if I set up an appointment anyway. Less messy and easier to compartmentalise. How was the seminar?"

 _"Terrible, you know how Peyton is."_

"It's why he's so much fun, interrupting to correct him every other second and watching him get flustered and angry is one of the few joys we all share."

The tinkling laughter that followed trailed off into an anticipatory sigh, _"Sooo, what are you thinking? Are you going to keep it?"_

And Klaus and Elijah shared a surprised glance. It hadn't occurred to them that perhaps the woman wouldn't.

"I'm not quite sure. On the one hand, babies are adorable and I can afford to have one right now. But having a parasitic life form growing inside of me for nine months isn't something I'm sure I can handle." The quickening of the heartbeat that accompanied that sentiment made it clear how true that was. "Oh, I've reached. I'll talk to in a bit."

"We'll walk you up." Elijah insisted and that was how they found themselves escorting the human to her door. She didn't invite them in, smart girl and when she turned to close the door Elijah stopped her, "Wait!"

"Yes?"

 _"You are going to forget everything that happened today, you went for a tour of the city and got distracted shopping."_ Elijah compelled the woman.

"Hmmm, no."

"No? What do you mean, no?"

"You're a witch." Klaus concluded. He knew she wasn't a werewolf and no human could resist a Compulsion from an Original.

"What is this, a Monty Python sketch? Are you going to weigh me against a duck? No, I'm not a witch." And the door was slammed in their face. With their enhanced hearing they heard her absently say, _'Fucking idiots'_ from inside her room but she was otherwise calm, cool, collected.

Clearly not human.

"She's a Null." Klaus said barely concealing the awe he felt. A Null was rare to find, impervious to anything not Human. They had such little business with the supernatural that it took Great Events for them to be involved with it and it made them hard to find, a talent that was not inherited at all, sporadically appearing in the world. The last time he had ever seen a Null was over eight centuries ago and the Null had walked straight through a rather powerful barrier constructed by a witch to put a knife through her heart and end her ritual that would have killed Klaus forever.

He had saved Klaus and done it solely because the noise of Klaus screaming in pain was disturbing his child's sleep.

Klaus had tried to look for the man but he had been travelling through and a peasant. He had never seen the man again.

"A Null? That's why the spell didn't work on her, that's why Sophie couldn't bind her to the coven." Elijah said, panicking. Always panicking, that was his little brother. Always something to worry about, Klaus couldn't just take over the Quarters like he wanted to, no, he had to go to some graveyard for some worthless witches to waste his time.

"So?"

"So what if that's the reason why the spell didn't stick rather than the fact that _you_ weren't the one to knock her up? If she's a Null, the child might be yours. The witch was right Vampires may be sterile but you're a hybrid."

The child might be his.

 _Are you going to keep it?_

The child might be his and she might not keep it.

xxooxx


	2. Chapter 2

xxooxx

It was ridiculous. For a brief, brief moment he actually considered it, the possibility of the Null bearing his progeny. But it was ridiculous. It was like something out of an exaggerated fairytale and Klaus refused to believe it.

So he went back to what he really wanted, the reason he came to New Orleans at all.

The warnings of the witches' conspiracy against him was alarming. He wanted to deal with them but this was no longer his playground, this was Marcel's. And while Klaus held more of a fondness for witches than his fellow vampires, he could still appreciate what Marcel had done, how easily and quickly he had silenced the witches.

But the display in the cemetery had made it plenty clear what plans the witches had for his fate. Bind him to their will by controlling the life of his child and use him to take out Marcel. And the Null had rendered their plans void, completely so.

So his reason to stay was gone. But Klaus was terribly curious. He wanted to know what weapon it was that Marcel was hoarding to himself. And that would require staying in New Orleans.

But...but he had found a _Null_. Marcel had a secret weapon that let him know the witches' every move but Klaus knew it was some form of witchcraft, his mother dear's practices well known to him.

He knew all but nothing about Nulls. No one who had ever come into contact with one could explicate exactly why they were so terrifying. They only spoke in terms of emotions and that was strange. Emotions weren't something that Creatures of the Night dealt in, not often. Once in Berlin he had found a vampire who had met a Null and he remembered what the man had said.

" _It's like suddenly being human. It's like being human and in a straitjacket with those eyes like a window in the wall just...just observing, not judging like the witches, barely even curious. Every single time I craved my humanity was nothing compared to having him look at me. Like I was nothing. Like I was powerless. Like suddenly having the rules of the world apply to me."_

It was a challenge and he wanted to test his mettle against it.

"Klaus," Elijah said and he was broken from his thoughts. His brother had been insistent on checking in with the Null, see if it was true and Klaus was the father.

Like a dog with a bone.

"Why won't you just let it go already Elijah?" Klaus sighed. Where he was curious about the Null because she was a Null, Elijah's only concern was that she was pregnant. He didn't understand his brother at all, how could he be interested in the baby rather than the Null?

"Because it might be your child Klaus and that makes it _family_ ," And Klaus could hear the unsaid 'Always and forever' that Elijah was thinking.

"It's a bit farfetched don't you think?"

"We're the _Originals_ , I don't think we get to call anything farfetched. Sophie wasn't wrong, you were born a werewolf Klaus. How many rules has your very existence broken? And yet you cannot believe this?"

"Come on Klaus, just admit you knocked up the poor girl and deal with it." Rebekah said, sprawled out on the chaise flicking over things on her phone. Her fascination with the gadgets of the new decade didn't seem to be fading. Last Klaus heard she had drained a bar full of humans dry when she failed to clear some level on Candy Crush.

"If any of my contacts get even an inkling of the fact that she's a Null-"

"We can look for her ourselves. Go to the hotel and compel the staff, they'll have her details, credit card statements goto addresses, we can find her."

"Morgana Hayden, right?" Rebekah asked.

"Yes." Elijah answered. He had gone behind Klaus' back to compel the receptionist at the hotel to tell them her full name.

"Brown hair, light brown eyes, beauty mark on her left cheek, smiles like she's trying not to laugh?"

And Klaus and Elijah looked at their sister who was still on her phone. Rebekah had never met the woman so why did she know that?

"Yes?" Elijah said, tentative and Rebekah snorted in laughter.

"She's a psychiatrist, her practice is in Stafford County, timings are Monday to Thursday from 8 in the morning to 6 in the evening, no walk ins, appointments have to be taken in advance, and she's a guest lecturer at Quantico. She has two dogs, a spaniel named Kiki and a labrador named Squidward, is allergic to shellfish, likes bad puns and likes Impressionist art, doesn't think much of Modern art. And she speaks German."

"How do you know all of that?"

"I googled her, she has a facebook page and twitter. Doesn't tweet often and when she does it's mostly about the dogs and retweeting articles about psychiatry."

Right, those without double lives involving the supernatural used social media.

"Everybody's on instagram now, though, you should see Marcel's pics."

...Right.

* * *

Morgana tapped out a rhythm on her desk absently. The next appointment was probably the most important one of the day, possibly more. Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah Mikaelson had made an appointment for a family therapy session. Morgana's receptionist, Liz, had said that it was Rebekah who had called to make the appointment, and that she'd seemed very amused.

Her brothers probably didn't know about the family therapy bit.

It made her want to laugh.

But she would have to keep a blank face, not let it show. She wondered, though if those enhanced sense of the hybrid/vampire made them privy even to that.

Vampire, werewolves, hybrids and witches, oh my. Such a strange turn of events all because of a one night stand while driving through Virginia and a consequent foetus.

Morgana was fairly certain that Klaus was the father. Her menstrual cycle was regular and she knew her fertility window. It wasn't an absolute of course, she knew that beyond a DNA test there was no way to be absolutely sure that Klaus was the father.

But there was a very high possibility that the baby, that she had decided to keep after days of deliberation, was his and consequently a...what was it the witches had called it? Ah, yes, a tribrid.

Ridiculous name aside, she did want to know more about the werewolf and vampire thing. Her child would very probably have to deal with the issues that came with being a tribrid at some point and she wanted information. Especially since what little she did know about vampires and werewolves came solely from popular culture and overhearing the witches and what that mad woman, Sophie, had said while trying to intimidate her.

Morgana pressed the button for the intercom letting Liz know to let them in and stood up, ready to greet them. The door opened soon after, a blonde woman, probably the Rebekah who had made the appointment, followed by the brother who'd tried to use the mind compulsion thing the witches had talked about on her and finally Klaus.

"Mikaelson family?" She asked although she knew the answer already and Rebekah smiled.

"That would be us."

"Good evening, I'm Dr Morgana Hayden. Please, take a seat." Klaus and Elijah looked at one another in silent conversation while Rebekah moved to greet her instead.

"I'm Rebekah," She said grinning from ear to ear. "Thank you for seeing us on such short notice."

"Oh, it was no trouble at all." Finally the trio sat down on the various chairs in the room and it was her turn to engage. "So, have you attended any therapy or counselling sessions before?"

"No, being that psychiatry as a field has evolved only in the last hundred or so years and I kept my siblings in a form of stasis by stabbing them and storing them in coffins for the last ninety years, we haven't quite had that chance." Klaus deadpanned.

"And how does that make you feel?" The words had barely left Morgana's mouth when Rebekah burst in loud, almost hysterical laughter, doubling over with the strength of her chuckles.

Keeping a blank face was just getting harder and harder.

* * *

She was laughing at him. It may not show on her face but he could tell that _she was laughing at him_.

The Null who might possibly be carrying his tribrid child was asking him how he felt about daggering his sibling for the better part of a century for a lark.

"I felt good, I felt righteous. Doing what was best for them, keeping them alive, I felt good."

The hidden laughter had dropped from her face but then it had dropped from everyone in the room. Rebekah inched away from him, jaw clenched and he heard Elijah inhale, preparing for a fight.

"Doing what was best for them, that's interesting. Have you always felt the need to parent them despite the fact that they are clearly of age?" The Null continued, unworried.

"Enough with the chit chat!" He roared and the Null rolled her eyes. 'One session in and already deserves a referral,' she muttered under her breath and he tried to control himself. He couldn't just reach out and snap her neck, that wouldn't do. Firstly, she was possibly carrying his child and secondly, as an Inhuman he couldn't hurt the Null even if he wanted to.

"Ugh, fine. Although recognising your siblings as individuals with their own agency and free will is important and you really need to work on that."

"What about the baby?" Elijah asked before Klaus could get mad again. "Are you keeping it?"

"I am keeping it. And for the most part it does seem like you're the sperm donor although I really have to emphasise that we cannot be sure of that. While our encounter was during my fertile window and I did have a period before having sex with you as my most recent partner, there are occasions when vaginal bleeding can be misconstrued as a period during the pregnancy. So, while it is most likely that you are the parent there is also every possibility that either Harry or John, my other sexual partners might be the father as well."

"And do Tom, Dick and Harry know that you're pregnant?" Klaus bit out even as her calm cool voice soothed the worst of his anger.

"The only thing I know about John is his name and while Harry knows he has also made it clear that he'd rather not be involved."

"And how does that make _you_ feel?" Klaus couldn't help but ask waspishly.

"Well, considering that I told him that he was only a potential father and if the baby was his, then he could be as involved as he wanted even if that meant being not involved at all, I'm pretty happy for the succinct answer _and_ the fact that he was willing to sign away all rights to the baby to avoid future nastiness. It's really quite lovely when people are honest about what they want and what they expect from others. Let's you handle things like mature adults."

"Honesty, huh?" Klaus smiled his most charming smile, "If you're carrying my child I want to know because it will very likely have repercussions regarding the hybrid army I want to build. While I like you a great deal more than most of the women I fuck, you're also infuriating and I want to know everything about so that I can know just what it is that makes a Null tick."

The smile on her face grew more and more wooden until it resembled a snarl more than a smile.

"What the _fuck_ is a Null?"

xxooxx


End file.
